By The Center for Inquiry
In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump crowed that, “In America, we celebrate faith. We cherish religion. We lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the Glory of God!”
This rhetoric goes far beyond the usual exaltations of faith that are commonplace in political oratory. It is nothing less than a Christian-nationalist declaration of war against our secular constitutional democracy.
It would be a grave mistake to minimize the president’s words as cheap talking points written for him on a teleprompter. Trump declared his allegiance to an agenda embraced by religious authoritarians and advanced by pressure groups who don’t disclose their finances but very much do have the attention and support of the president.
Right now, at the urging of these secretive groups, nine different government agencies are eliminating vital protections against religious proselytizing and discrimination in federal programs designed to serve the fundamental needs of the most vulnerable in society, providing shelter, food, family, health care, and livelihood.
Trump-appointed Attorney General William Barr recently declared that “secularists” – that is, Americans who value our Constitution’s separation of church from state – lack the morality to be worthy citizens. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who holds exclusive conferences with administration-friendly “faith-based” media outlets, bases American foreign policy on his eagerness for an apocalyptic holy war.
The United States is not and will never be a country of, by, or for any church, faith, or denomination. A dogmatic movement with such a dark and twisted vision can’t be allowed to wield power over the rest of us. The Center for Inquiry stands against this theocratic fever dream, and we’ll continue to oppose it in every way we can.
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the Council for Secular Humanism. The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.
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See also:
* America: Whose Nation? Which Communities? The Fault Lines Of The New Christian Nationalism.
* Washington Monthly: Why Christian Nationalism Is A Threat To Democracy.
* Vox: Trump’s ‘Court Evangelicals’ And The Long History Of Christian Nationalism.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on February 5, 2020